Edit Office Docs on Your iPhone with Quickoffice (and Get a Copy for Free)
It's the little things in life that you miss the most. Like how when I started carrying my iPhone instead of a laptop, I could no longer edit the Word and Excel docs I was carrying around. I don't have to miss that anymore, because Quickoffice brings document editing to the iPhone. And though it sells for $9.99 on iTunes, I have 5 free copies to give away. Read on for details.
There's a lot to like about Quickoffice. It delivers real editing capabilities; in Word, you get font selection, styles like bold and italic, bulleting, and yes, full cut, copy, and paste. Mind you, this isn't Word 2007. You're not going to be able to create tables or insert images, but it's plenty handy for making changes to a document while on the train.
Likewise, Excel includes cell formatting, a selection of number formats, the ability to insert and resize rows and columns, and a huge number of built-in functions. And Quickoffice supports all common flavors of Office files, including Office 2007.
All of the editing tools are implemented elegantly. For example, selecting text is simple, with easy-to-grab drag bars that minimize fat-finger frustration. And you can zoom to your heart's content, or rotate the iPhone and use it in landscape mode. Of course, all this works just as well on the iPod Touch.
My biggest complaint: Though you can get files into Quickoffice using a MobileMe account or an easily configured ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection to your PC, your iPhone's e-mail attachments are inaccessible to Quickoffice. Argh.
Now for the part you've been waiting for. Want to score your own copy for free? I've got five App Store codes to give away, courtesy of the fine folks at Quickoffice. To enter, just leave a comment telling me if you think smartphone apps like Quickoffice can compel you to leave your laptop (or netbook) at home. Be sure to include an e-mail address (a disposable one is fine). The deadline is next Tuesday, May 5, 12 p.m. ET, at which time I'll choose five commenters at random. Good luck!
